Mercedes-Benz rolls out locally made GLA, commissions third assembly line

Pune: German luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz today rolled out its sixth locally assembled model, the GLA Class of SUVs, and also formally commissioned the third assembly line at its plant near here. The new locally-assembled GLA Class of SUVs come up to Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh cheaper than the imported models at Rs 31.31 lakh for GLA 200 CDI and the GLA 200 CDI Sport at Rs 34.25 lakh (ex–showroom Pune), as the local parts sourcing has been increased to 60 percent.

It can be noted that its smaller rival BMW had last month announced up to 50 percent local sourcing for some of its models from the earlier 20 percent and has plans to take this to over 70 percent going forward. GLA class is a newly introduced entry level compact SUV, over the entry level sedan CLA as initially planned.

With the new assembly line, the Pune plant set a record of becoming the only assembly line under the Mercedes-Benz umbrella across the world to have flexible assembly units on which it can roll out all the six models being assembled here.

The company has the largest assembly line in the country amongst the luxury car makers with 20,000 units of installed capacity with a cumulative investment of Rs 1,000 crore since 1994, which also makes it the largest investment by any luxe carmaker in the country.